Richmond man convicted on one of three sex crime counts

MARTINEZ -- A Contra Costa jury on Friday convicted a Richmond man of pimping, acquitted him of human trafficking, and deadlocked on a pandering charge.

"In this case, human trafficking was the count I cared about most," said deputy public defender Kaylie Simon, who represented defendant Timothy Lee Williams, 49. "So I'm very satisfied the jury returned a verdict of not guilty."

Williams was charged for his activities from Dec. 21, 2011, to Jan. 27, 2012, during which he was accused of having a working relationship with a prostitute. The woman, with whom he later had a child, was the first witness in the trial, testifying reluctantly and only after being given immunity. Under direct examination from prosecutor Chad Mahalich, she described Williams as the "love of my life," denied he was her pimp, and insisted she always worked as an "independent contractor."

When asked about a January 2012 incident in which Williams is alleged to have slammed her head into a car dashboard, she said her memory was blurry because of her addiction at the time to alcohol and crack cocaine.

"That's one of the challenges in many of these kinds of cases," Mahalich said Friday after the verdict was returned. "It's representative of what we encounter. The victims in these cases don't view themselves that way."

Surveyed by Simon and Mahalich in the hallway outside the courtroom, the jurors were deadlocked on the pandering count, with nine of the seven-woman, five-man panel voting guilty, and three voting not guilty.

Mahalich said a decision on whether to retry Williams on the pandering charge probably will not be made until after the sentencing, which is scheduled for Sept. 24.